How I was treated by Tesco for putting my son on the potty!

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My son turned 2 in May and we are mid potty training. Been in to places like Boots and M&S and got fold away potty out in store for my son to have a wee. I've also used it in Tesco with no complaints from them. This morning I went in and my son was crying 'wee wee'. Got him out of the buggy and put him on the potty - I wasn't in the middle of an aisle and went t clothes section where we'd be more hidden away as that section was close by to us. My son did a wee but come to get him back in the buggy and he had the most hideous tantrum. Once I got himm back in the buggy, I stood up to find 2 members of managerial staff stood over me. They told me that there was a toilet in the store where I should have taken my son to. I explained that he's just started potty training and when he needs a wee it has to be then and there and I don't have time to get him to a toilet. They told me they undestood that but that there was a toilet I should really have used. So again I explained that I don't have time to get him to the toilet. The woman then said 'it's not nice for our customers to see, it's not nice for your son and now you've just caused a big scene in the store'. I said 'well now you've made me feel absolutely rubbish' and they both walked off. I walked out of the store but thought 'no I'm not having that' and I went back and gave it to them both barrels that I was disgusted with the way I'd been treated, I'd been talked to very rudely and spoken to like I was a child myself. The senior manager came down and was very apologetic and I asked her of Tescos policy was that if there's a mother with a tantrumming child, do you train your staff to go over and tell the mother she's created a big scene in the store. She was very apologetic about the way I'd been treated. I'm still fuming. I've used the portable potty in other shops without complaints and I've seen other mums do the same in shops too - that's the whole purpose of the portable potty being invented. I just wanted people to know how badly Tesco have acted in this instance towards a mother potty training her 2 year old. Can anyone else recommend best places to post to make sure Tesco know I'm letting people know about this? Thanks.

Is he your first?

Is Op a watered-down poo troll ?

As i said earlier use pull ups but im surprised so many think 2 is too young. Ds was dry at 2.2. Dd at 2 . However if they cant hold it then perhaps that child is not ready

Another one who hates to say it but I totally support Tesco.

Yuck. You can't be serious.

Would you like it if a stranger's kid sat down and did a poo on your kitchen while you were preparing food?

Sara - that is truly gross

How about a packed tube train in rush hour a few years back - woman pulls down her pants and does the worlds biggest wee. At the next stop the train is taken out of service so it can be cleaned. lots of unhappy commuters!

OP is winding us up. No-one normal would do this in a shop.

Trying - definitely pre-empt it. Do the first week or two at home until you suss their abilities and patterns. Then always take them to the loos before getting in the car, when you arrive at destination (shop), before you leave again and on return home. That way, if they do ask while you are in the middle of something, you'll know they are neither desperate nor "full" if they have been within the last half hour. You can make it fun. "Let's go and see what the toilets here are like" etc etc. just be wary of freaking them out by using a public toilet hand drier

I've been giving some thought to that using the potty in the middle of a store isn't a one-off for the OP and her son. The OP says she's let her child use a potty in Tescos before this incident and let him use it "in placeS like Boots and M&S".

Now, either that's a child with a very weak bladder or he's taking an worryingly long time to train or the OP's a woman who does an awful, awful lot of shopping. maddiemostmerry, what do you make of it?

I managed to toilet train three boys without a porta potty. There is no way I would have put them on the potty in the middle of Tesco - even hidden amongst the clothes. And if you had time to get there, you probably had time to get to the loos.

I would be disgusted if I saw a child on the potty in the middle of a shop, but not disgusted at all if the child had an accident - because the first would be a deliberate decision by an adult, to put the child on the potty, and the second would be, well, an accident.

Part of potty training is the child learning to wait, and go in the right place - something your child will not learn if you whip the potty out wherever you happen to be.

The OP does have a couple of supporters, both who seem to have been around for a while, but I'm another one on Tesco's side. Portapotties are great but we only ever used them outside or in toilets.

Er, yucky. I have no problem with seeing toddlers using potties in parks or on pavements... but in a supermarket, around the food: I'd rather not. I mean, I deal with my own kids and their poo and wee all day long, but smelling someone else's would put me right off my frozen peas...

I support Tesco too. As others have said, there's a first time for everything.

I have never seen a potty being used in a shop either.

Nearly, thanks DS1 didn't the Dyson blades in one place and refused to go to the toilets, I don't think he had a wee in five hours he hated them so much.

trying I was dreading it but actually it was ok. There was an element of competition between the two of them that helped a bit.

I had a really big basket of spare clothes downstairs and I fid seven changes (each child) the first day, five each the next, three the golloeing day and then they were pretty much dry barring wee accidents.

Lots of my friends trained straight to the toilet but as they always needed to go at the same time we had two chair type potties just by loo door which made it easier.

Make sure you have a back pack with spare clithes for when you are out (also a hand bag is hard to carry when you are running with one under each arm!). As someone else up thread said I always took them to the loo before leaving anywhere and as soon as we arrived anywhere which hel

^ helped.

Good luck trying !!!!

Thats a good point graham also the part about I've seen other mums do the same in shops too makes it all sound totally normal behaviour.

I don't think people are getting that THE WEE IS IN A BAG - sorry to shout but it's in a bag with an absorbent pad in it so you just tie up the bag and it's all contained. I think you're all a bit hysterical.

I've used the portapotty loads and personally if given the choice between wee all over the floor and wee in a bag, I'd go for wee in a bag.

That said, I've always taken DD outside to use the portapotty. Or gone to the loo as soon as we arrived and left places.

Not that my strategy always worked as once she went to the loo leaving the cafe and then proceeded to let forth a tsunami of wee in the next shop we went into, among all the low hanging clothes. We are not talking about just wet clothes but a HUGE puddle of wee on the floor. I still go hot with shame at the memory of it. Luckily it was tiled floors.

For all those whose children were toilet trained within 30 seconds of taking the nappy off and never ever had an accident or got caught short, have a .

Oops missed out a like in that sentence

I'm with tesco, both my dc trained themselves just after turning 2 and unless we were going on a long journey never took a potty, never had any accidents and just ewwwwwww at letting them wee in the clothes section of a supermarket!!

Apologies everyone for the dreadful typos - clucked post instead of preview again

Pretty, thanks also.

This has to be a joke? If not, yabt&uu - wear pull ups when out if you can't manage to avoid this sort of behaviour.

her own clothes were wet, not the shop clothes, just to clarify!